Lillian Li on the Sweetness of Inspired Writing

Welcome to Author Spotlight, where accomplished writers share their thoughts on seeking inspiration, maintaining a creative process, and how they’re optimizing their online presence with Squarespace.

For Lillian Li, whose writing portfolio includes the critically acclaimed novel, ‘Number One Chinese Restaurant,’ inspiration most often comes from the very real circumstances of daily life. Li talked with us about the motivation behind her writing, how her creativity has been affected by the pandemic, and why she sees her online presence as a “hypeman” for good writing, whether it’s her own or not.

SQUARESPACE: What inspired you to write this story?

Lillian Li: I was inspired to write Number One Chinese Restaurant after a brief waitressing stint at (can you guess?) a Chinese restaurant. I was struck by the rich network of relationships formed by the staff at that restaurant — they really treated each other like family, which meant not only protecting one another from the customers and boss, but also getting into screaming fights in the back of the kitchen over nothing and making up seconds later. I wanted to capture those behind-the-scenes relationships that were forged out of long hours and punishing work, and show how it was by caring for one another that the staff could make their restaurant lives not just livable, but enjoyable. In that same vein, I also wanted to write about those relationships outside the restaurant (friends, family) that were sacrificed in order to sustain the ones inside the restaurant, and the double-edged existence of career restaurant workers.

SQSP: What do you hope readers take away from your book?

LL: I hope readers leave feeling like the characters they’ve met in my book, from the restaurant owners to the dishwasher, continue to live on even once they turn the last page. In these COVID times, when restaurants of all sizes and styles are in danger of closing their doors forever, I hope readers take the care they feel for my characters and apply that to taking care of the restaurants, and the restaurant workers, that used to, and continue to, take care of them.

SQSP: How has your creative process been affected by the circumstances of the pandemic, if at all?

LL: One of the big surprises of the pandemic is that writing remains just as and no more difficult than it’s always been. Before the pandemic, I had bad days where I couldn’t get lost in the writing flow, and good days, where I also couldn’t get lost in the writing flow. During the pandemic, I’ve found that every sentence remains a boulder that I have to push up a hill, a hill that hasn’t changed in steepness or height. Some days, I have the strength to push, and some days I just let the boulder roll over me. Before and during the pandemic, I had no idea and no control over what kind of day it would be! Writing has already taught me to endure the unknown and the uncontrollable, and while the pandemic has forced me into greater intimacy with those feelings, they are, ultimately, familiar.

SQSP: What advice do you have for fellow creatives who are struggling to stay motivated and inspired?

LL: I would try to acknowledge that lack of motivation and inspiration, and do creative work anyways. Uninspired, unmotivated work is as necessary to creative output as darkness is to light. I’m now working on a second novel that I really care about, but for three years, I was writing almost every day and hating almost every word of it. I started ideas, grew to despise them, and kept writing; characters remained flat and unlovable, and I stayed with them. For three years, I felt like I’d lost my creativity and joy for the work, but I couldn’t stop trying because I remembered it had once been joyous. Then, an idea was not so despicable. A character started to flesh out, then three, then five. Every day since, good ones and bad ones, I just feel really lucky. Three years is a long time, and many writers have had longer spells of writing through the sludge, but sometimes that sludge needs to be cleared out before you can write something clear and clean. Regardless, after a spell of tasting tar, inspired writing, whenever it does come, is going to be that much sweeter. 

SQSP: As an author, what role does your online presence play in your success?

LL: This is a hard question! If we take for granted that my online presence has played a role in my success, then my hope is that that role is a “hypeman” not only for my writing, but also for other authors’. Being online, for me, is like shouting into a void that murmurs back occasionally, and so I hope that those murmurs mean that if I were to shout, “Read this year’s wonderful debut novels,” that somebody out there hears it. 

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